Grow Anyway

It probably comes as no surprise (especially if you follow my Twitter feed) that I read a lot on the big, ol’ online (and even in print..I’m looking at you, YMCA copies of The New Yorker). Admittedly, I rely quite a bit on The Atlantic (I might be addicted) but one of my favorite means of articles is friends and family.*

And because, in the grand tradition of Ostarello’s, sometimes an article is shared with me that pierces my heart a little and notches itself right into my being, and I think someone else really needs to read this. Today, friends, that someone is you.

My friend Cyndy passed this my way, tucked toward the top of an email whose body did not involve this topic – but that’s the sort of friends Cyndy and I are. We write emails that don’t have salutations or sign-offs, we sometimes write a lot and sometimes write very little, and for years our friendship has felt like a never-ending conversation (and we’re pretty happy cleaning and singing together, but that’s another story).

Over on Storyline, Donald Miller posted Your Growth May Threaten Others, Grow Anyway – a read whose heart comes early on:

“…You were designed to change.

And if you think about it, it’s irrefutable. Everything God created, from poppies to puppies, changes. Nothing stays the same even for a second. Grass grows, clouds wisp by, water flows into the ocean, guys grow beards, girls become women, and some of them moms and grandmas. Everything God made is always in motion. The only things that aren’t changing are, by definition, dead.

It’s true of you and me, too. Remember the first time you went back home after going off to college? Or that first time you went back home after a long, summer adventure?”

Whether you’re in a transition, or just thinking about one, or just know someone who is bursting/blooming into a new version of themselves, Miller’s piece will inspire you to encourage that person – or yourself.

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*My dad has sent me an alarming number of HPV-related-to-throat-cancer articles lately. I will probably not share those here.

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